Coco LaFemmeMakh: Oh please, NASA find life/fossils/oil.Oh I wonder what the Christians will say, if there's evidence of millions-year-old life on Mars....even if it's just microbial.

Don't forget Jews and Islam. They share the same stories.

The Fark Athiest: somebody who doesn't like fundamental Christians, namely Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists. Who cares? Most Christians wish those people would shut up as well. I am a devout Christian and scientist; I am also non-denominational as I see the different sects as nothing more than political machines. But, back to the original post, why focus your hate on only Christians (obviously catholics according to your profile)? Is it not accepted for liberals to be Jew-bashers or intellectually savvy to hate Islam. If you are going to be an atheist, spread your discourse evenly amongst all of the Abrahamic religions, or all religions at that. Otherwise you come across as a pouting child who didn't get something they wanted for Christmas or somebody who can't put together a jigsaw puzzle without a picture to look at.

Oh I wonder what the Christians will say, if there's evidence of millions-year-old life on Mars....even if it's just microbial.

Depends on the particular sect, but I expect if we found microbial life on Mars, most Christian groups wouldn't worry too much about it. When intelligent alien life is contacted, that is when you will see riots as whole belief systems come crashing down.

Bennie Crabtree:I rarely see derp in the threads of science blogs but wtf are Gizmodo readers on? God having a wife? Mistresses? I thought it was some kind of joke but they seem to really misunderstand the very long tradition of Catholic natural philosophers discussing life on other planets. One example: Galileo received funding from Catholic sources when he suggested the moons of Jupiter could be related to God having other people living on Jupiter (and therefore humans should communicate with them).

The Vatican was the original funder for the search for alien life, and the reasons were theological, political, and scientific.

But.. that flies directly in the face of some of our most cherished beliefs about ourselves, that science and religion (especially the Catholic Church, because Galileo and.. uh.. Well, Galileo will do for now. I'm sure there are more examples) are at war, and that we are on the winning side. How can what you're saying be true?

Oh I wonder what the Christians will say, if there's evidence of millions-year-old life on Mars....even if it's just microbial.

If anything, it should just bolster the importance and power of their god. A god that makes life is great. If he makes it twice, then even better. But some will be angry, and say it is all BS and contamination from Earth.

Not sure if it'd be the it'd be the greatest discovery in mankind, but definitely in the top 5...

machoprogrammer:Why does every thread about this shiat turn into "I HATE RELIGION"

If it weren't for RELIGION, I could put on some sunscreen and a mask, step outside my front door, pick up a rock, and look at it under my microscope, if I wanted to look for evidence of native life on Mars.

MmmmBacon:Depends on the particular sect, but I expect if we found microbial life on Mars, most Christian groups wouldn't worry too much about it. When intelligent alien life is contacted, that is when you will see riots as whole belief systems come crashing down.

You're talking about some people who have already made their peace with the concept of a cosmic Jewish zombie who can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

These folks have shown that they can rationalize anything. Contact with extraterrestrial life forms isn't going to be a problem.